Maple Gold adds second drill rig at Douay, prepares for drilling at Eagle
Maple Gold Mines Ltd. has announced that the 50/50 joint venture between the company and Agnico Eagle Mines Limited has added a second rig to the JV's Fall 2021 drill program at the Douay Gold Project in Québec. In addition, a planned Phase I drill program at the Company's 100%-controlled Eagle Mine Property ("Eagle") (see news from October 7, 2021) is now expected to commence in January 2022 following a short holiday break. The Company is also pleased to appoint veteran entrepreneur and current Maple Gold board director Michelle Roth as Independent Non-Executive Chair.
"We are pleased to have secured a second rig to accelerate completion of the Fall 2021 drill program and in anticipation of ramping up our exploration activities in Q1 2022," stated Matthew Hornor, President and CEO of Maple Gold. "It is an exciting time for Maple Gold with two rigs now available to complete up to 20,000 meters of planned drilling across our ~400 km² property package, including testing high priority targets at Eagle in a matter of weeks. I would also like to welcome Michelle Roth as the Company's next Chairperson, while thanking Sean Charland for having served so ably in that role since 2020. Michelle's extensive experience across both the private and public sectors strengthens our senior leadership and corporate governance at a key inflection point in the Company's growth trajectory."
Fall 2021 Drilling Update
The Fall 2021 drill holes at Douay (see Figure 1 for hole locations) are primarily step-out targets designed to test the strike continuity and expansion potential of some of the better intercepts from recent drill programs in the Nika, Central and 531 Zones. The first rig, which commenced drilling in early November, has already completed drill holes DO-21-313 (Nika Zone), DO-21-315 (Central Zone), DO-21-316 and DO-21-317 (both in the 531 Zone), and is currently drilling DO-21-319 (531 Zone). The second rig has completed DO-21-318 (Central Zone) and is currently drilling DO-21-314 (Nika Zone).
A total of 2,661 metres ("m") have been drilled out of 2,750 m planned as part of the Fall 2021 drill program. The first 845 samples, including all of drill hole DO-21-313 in the Nika Zone, were shipped to ALS Labs on November 26, 2021. Given the encouraging observations from initial drill core, the second rig has been mobilized to continue testing additional step-out targets as part of the Fall 2021 drill program at Douay. Of particular focus are: 1) mineralized horizons extending to the southeast from this year's 1.6 g/t gold ("Au") over 132 m intercept in the Nika Zone (see news from May 26, 2021); 2) areas down- and up-plunge from this year's 8.8 g/t Au over 28.5 m intercept in the 531 Zone (see news from September 9, 2021); and 3) over 700 m of undrilled strike extending to the east-southeast of the Central Zone as currently defined.
Figure 1: Drill hole locations for Fall 2021 drill program at Douay
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Phase I Drilling at Eagle
Phase I drilling at Eagle is now expected to commence in January 2022 following a short holiday break. Initial Eagle drill permits have been received with additional permit requests pending. The Company expects to keep one drill rig in the Eagle area to complete the Phase I drill program, after which it will be available to commence drilling in the Telbel mine area.
Additional details on the Phase I drill program at Eagle and the JV's planned Winter 2022 drill campaign will be released in the coming weeks.
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